Abraham Epstein: The Forgotten Father of Social Security by Pierre Epstein

By Pierre Epstein

Social protection has lengthy been referred to as the 3rd rail of yankee politics—an unassailable establishment for which we will thank Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Or can we? Abraham Epstein used to be a huge determine in American social reform through the first 1/2 the 20th century. His identify and his theories look in nearly each e-book written on Social safeguard and the hot Deal, yet an entire account of his existence hasn't ever been made. Epstein’s son, Pierre, now secures his legacy during this booklet that tells for the 1st time the tale of his father’s function within the belief and enactment of Social safeguard and sheds new gentle at the internal workings of the Roosevelt administration. Combining memoir and highbrow background, Pierre Epstein takes readers backstage of latest Deal laws to inform how his father’s fast-moving profession led him to turn into the true architect of Social Security—he even got here up with these phrases to give an explanation for his theories. A prolific journalist, founding father of the yankee organization for Social defense, and writer of various books, together with lack of confidence: A problem to the USA, Abe Epstein fought desperately with FDR to treatment the flaws of the unique Social defense Act—only to be solid apart via political machinations. still, the exclusion didn't cease him from making major contributions to the 1939 amendments that solidified Social defense for coming generations of Americans. during this booklet readers will meet a colourful and tenacious participant within the heritage of this severe piece of social assurance legislation—an obsessed reformer who mobilized help from the ground up for his imaginative and prescient of Social Security. They also will meet his family members and research of the struggles and frustrations Abe Epstein confronted in making his manner in the US as an immigrant Russian Jew. This enticing publication fills an important hole within the historic checklist, exhibiting that Social protection is greater than a technical topic approximately finance and actuarial information, that it really is essentially a human notion with deep philosophical roots. In the face of today’s privatization controversy, Abraham Epstein’s theories have a lot to inform us concerning the present debate whereas Pierre Epstein’s insightful narrative indicates us the underlying value of 1 man’s indelible legacy.

Can economics be passionate? … Can it heart on humans and what particularly issues to them day-in and day-out. … And aid us comprehend their hidden reasons for why they do what they do in daily life?

Uri Gneezy and John record are revolutionaries. Their rules and techniques for revealing what particularly works in addressing mammoth social, enterprise, and monetary difficulties offers us new knowing of the explanations underlying human habit. we will be able to then constitution incentives which may get humans to maneuver mountains, switch their behavior—or at the least get a greater deal.

But discovering the precise incentive might be like searching for a needle in a haystack. Gneezy and List’s pioneering process is to embed themselves within the factories, faculties, groups, and workplaces the place humans paintings, dwell, and play. Then, via large-scale box experiments carried out “in the wild,” Gneezy and checklist notice humans of their traditional environments with no them being acutely aware that they're observed.

Their randomized experiments have printed how one can shut the space among wealthy and negative scholars; to forestall the violence plaguing inner-city faculties; to decipher no matter if ladies are rather much less aggressive than males; to properly expense services and products; and to find the genuine the explanation why humans discriminate.

To get the solutions, Gneezy and record boarded planes, helicopters, trains, and cars to embark on trips from the foothills of Kilimanjaro to California wineries; from sultry northern India to the cold streets of Chicago; from the playgrounds of faculties in Israel to the boardrooms of a few of the world’s biggest businesses. within the Why Axis, they take us alongside for the journey, and during enticing and colourful tales, current classes with large payoffs.

Their revelatory, startling, and pressing discoveries approximately how incentives rather paintings are either progressive and immensely functional. This study will switch either the way in which we expect approximately and take motion on giant and little difficulties. rather than counting on assumptions, we will discover, via proof, what relatively works. someone operating in enterprise, politics, schooling, or philanthropy can use the procedure Gneezy and checklist describe within the Why Axis to arrive a deeper, nuanced knowing of human habit, and a greater figuring out of what motivates humans and why.

Reviews:

“Gneezy and checklist. .. specialise in inventive 'field experiments' that elucidate the workings of social psychology and determination making. .. Writing within the Freakonomics vein of breezy pop-econ. .. The authors’ lucid, enticing exposition of thought-provoking learn spotlights a few of our extra perverse promptings—and their underlying common sense. "
—Publishers Weekly, STARRED Review

“Fun, Freakonomics-style tales approximately why humans do the issues they do…. Gneezy and record provide illuminating discussions on many subject matters, from the variations among animus-based and monetary discrimination to how ladies can develop as much as be extra aggressive and shut the gender hole within the exertions industry. ”
—Kirkus Reviews

“[T]rue trailblazers in a single of the best concepts in economics of the final fifty years. ”
—Steven D. Levitt, coauthor of Freakonomics

“Uri Gneezy is a pioneer whose paintings tears down the wall among the lab and the sphere. ”
—Alvin E. Roth, winner of the Nobel Prize in monetary Sciences

“It is tough to visualize any tale of innovation in our considering economics that doesn't contain Uri and John. either of their self sufficient paintings and of their joint tasks, they've got accelerated and checked out the delicate underbelly of economics. I can’t examine a booklet that I’m looking ahead to greater than this one. ”—Prof. Dan Ariely, Professor of Behavioral Economics, Duke college; writer, Predictably Irrational and The Upside of Irrationality

“John checklist and Uri Gneezy are one of the optimum behavioral economists on this planet. Their rules were groundbreaking, and their learn has been commonly learn and highly influential. I'll be wanting to learn any publication they produce. ” —Prof. Daniel Gilbert, Professor of Psychology, Harvard collage and writer of Stumbling on Happiness

“John record and Uri Gneezy have performed the pioneering monetary paintings on no matter if gender transformations are innate or the results of social pressures. they're of America's prime younger economists and their paintings is with nice curiosity. ”—Prof. Tyler Cowen, George Mason collage; writer, the commercial Scene and blogger, Marginal Revolution. com

“John checklist and Uri Gneezy are leaders within the zone of experimental and behavioral economics and emerging stars of the occupation. Their paintings bridges the space among the lab and the sector and allows us to profit how financial brokers make genuine judgements in managed environments and because the fiscal stakes swap. A publication bringing their precise views and kinds has the potential for being a true domestic run. ”—Prof. Daron Acemoglu, Professor of Economics, M. I. T, coauthor of Why countries Fail

“Gneezy and record are of the main awesome and engaging economists on the earth. Their paintings is at the same time scientifically course breaking and obtainable to most of the people. They've studied prosaic markets like baseball card conventions, daycare facilities, and auto-repair outlets, yet their rules are so deep that Gneezy and checklist demonstrate that those mundane markets prove to carry the secrets and techniques of human motivation and human habit. Their paintings has revolutionized all of social technological know-how. I can't wait to learn a publication that they write. ”—Prof. David Laibson, Professor of Economics, Harvard University

“Since it might probably switch the best way we either take into consideration and take motion on colossal and little difficulties, [The Why Axis] can be required interpreting for these in company, philanthropy, politics, healthcare, and education—as good as for somebody drawn to knowing the complicated the explanation why we do what we do. It's a invaluable spouse to Freakonomics and SuperFreakonomics in addition to books and articles via Gary Becker, who was once offered the 1992 Nobel Prize in fiscal sciences”—Huntington News

“John checklist and Uri Gneezy have performed pioneering paintings in economics on massive, advanced difficulties akin to discrimination, even if gender changes are innate or the results of social pressures, and the way to shut the distance among inner-city scholars and people who dwell in prosperous components. somebody attracted to discovering options to those and different significant difficulties will locate their ebook a wealthy source. ”
—Tyler Cowen, professor of economics, George Mason college, and blogger, MarginalRevolution. com

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Extra resources for Abraham Epstein: The Forgotten Father of Social Security

Example text

Because she stayed up all night and worried about me. I never thought anyone would feel that way. But there she was sitting up all night and worried about me, and I hadn’t the decency to send a telegram. ” The years in England turned Henriette into a committed Anglophile. She loved the countryside and its churches, its flowers and public gardens. And she loved her tea. Every night she made sure to brew her “cuppa” before going off to bed. The friends she made in those years remained friends for life.

For several days Abe watched Judge Kotek at work inside a decaying building filled with soldiers carrying sinister guns. The The Socialist Johnny Appleseed 45 To view the complete page image, please refer to the printed version of this work. Lyuban, Russia, 1922. Abe and his family. On back is written: “In front of our house. ” Note the rough wood sides of the typical Russian house. courtroom had little light, the floors were wet from the snow, and the paint was peeling off the walls. The judge’s method was simple and fast.

But the ripples that were spread from its little splash show his passions in their inceptive swell. Research was first, facts and figures taken from documents and interviews. He became a master at backing up everything he wrote, and the book’s pages are freighted with tables and photographs. Following that was his developing philosophy that discrimination, unemployment, poverty, and all the social ills he was shocked to find in America were not just evil in themselves, but destructive of the very virtues that America bragged about.